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5.
Desktop vs. Mobile
Desktop
79%
Mobile
21%
Pageviews
Data based on over 100 million pageviews
from ProBoards during April & May 2014
Desktop
80%
Mobile
20%
Posts
Data based on over 2,500,000 posts made
during April & May 2014

6.
Mobile Browser vs. Native App
Native App
26%
Mobile Browser
74%
Pageviews
Data based on over 100 million pageviews
from ProBoards during April & May 2014
Native App
31%
Mobile Browser
69%
Posts
Data based on over 2,500,000 posts made
during April & May 2014

8.
Mobile Takeaways
 The majority of mobile forum traffic comes from mobile browsers
 Native app users are more likely to participate in discussions
 Provide your visitors with both a mobile optimized browser experience as
well as support for a native app such as Tapatalk or Forum Runner for
maximum engagement

9.
Forum Moderators
 Data came from April & May 2014 from thousands of the largest ProBoards
forums with active moderators
 Eliminated moderators that were not online in the last 30 days
 Top Forums were based on total pageviews
 Looked at both Local and Global Moderators
 Local Moderators only have powers in certain areas of the forum
 Global Moderators have powers in all areas of the forum

11.
Why use Local Moderators?
 It’s hard for a Global Moderator to be everywhere at once
 More eyes looking throughout the forum, even in areas with less activity
 You can get the benefits of a strong moderator team while still limiting
what powers they have across the forum
 You can build trust by starting someone as a moderator with limited
powers before moving them up to the more important role of Global
Moderator

12.
Who Moderates the Most?
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Top 50 Forums Top 51-250 Top 251-500 Top 501-750 Top 751-1000 Top 1001-2000
Total Number of Moderator Actions
Local Mod Team Global Mod Team Forum Owner

14.
Moderator Takeaways
 The most successful forums take advantage of using as many Local Moderators
as Global Moderators to keep a better eye on every section of their forum
 Having a strong Global Moderation team is essential for a successful forum
 As your forum grows, more and more responsibility should shift from the owner to the
Global Moderation team
 The forum owner tends to do more moderation than any individual member of
the moderation team
 In smaller forums, on average the forum owner does 170 - 366% more moderation
than individual Global Moderators
 In larger forums, the forum owner only does 13% more work than individual Global
Moderators

15.
Guests Must Login
 Some forums have the option to require guests to login to the forum in
order to view the content
 How do the largest forums use this feature?
 What impact does it have on the number of users that register on your
forum?

18.
Guests Must Login Takeaways
 98% of the top 50 ProBoards forums don’t require guests to login
 Forums will see 37 - 71% more registered users by not requiring guests to
login to view forum content
 Don’t require guests to login to view your content if you want to grow your
forum
 Many people will simply leave when being forced to register on your forum
 Visitors won't have the opportunity to be hooked by your forum's great content

19.
Themes
 What do the largest forums do in terms of theme customization?
 Looked at over 1.4 million forum registrations on our top 500 forums
 Broke down these forums into three categories:
 Minor to no customization (simple color changes, logo change)
 Medium customization (customized images or slight layout changes)
 High customization (customized layout, images, etc.)

24.
Level of Theme Customization
 50% of the top 500 forums kept the default theme or made only minor
changes
 40% of the forums did a medium amount of customization
 10% of the forums created a highly customized theme
 Only one out the top 100 forums had a highly customized theme

27.
You Are Probably Not a UX Designer
 Most people aren’t designers and can make poor design choices
 Bad font and color choices are common and make the forum hard to read
 Poor placement of links on the page can make the forum harder to use
 A fully customized theme is not necessary for a popular forum
 Sticking with a professionally designed theme is generally better
 UX Designers work hard to ensure your theme is both functional and
aesthetically pleasing
 The more you customize your theme, the more you could decrease how
many users register on your forum

28.
Overall Takeaways
 Make sure you have both a mobile theme and support for native mobile
apps for maximum engagement
 The top forums have active forum owners. Stay active!
 Build a strong moderator team that includes both Local and Global
Moderators to set your forum up for success
 Keep Guests Must Login turned off unless your community requires it
 Your time is better spent worrying about your forum’s content than your
forum’s layout
 Focus on building a great community with great content and the rest fall
into place